DRIVING INNOVATION

Excellence in Leadership,
Science and Education

Great things are done by a series of small things.

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Philanthropy and community service are integral parts of metro Birmingham’s business community.

The region’s numerous charitable organizations and foundations play a major role in the local economy – working on issues like health care, education, workforce development and other initiatives that have a significant connection to the quality of life in Birmingham.

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As the financial pressure on small colleges continues to increase and the number of colleges closing continues to tick upward, more and more institutions are considering whether it’s time to consider merging with another institution. There are many potential benefits to doing so: Administrative costs can be shared, merged institutions can provide more-diverse curricula and more-robust student services, and merged institutions can achieve greater reach and breadth, which can in turn enhance their branding, enrollment, and financial stability. In short, a merger can help ensure a college’s survival, at least in some form.

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Recent data on the viability of colleges is sobering. A September 2015 Moody’s Investor Service report highlights a persistent inability among small colleges to increase revenue, which could lead to as many as 15 institutions closing for good by 2017, well up from the usual rate of five annually. The main threat for many small colleges, defined by Moody’s as private colleges with operating revenue below $100 million and public colleges below $200 million, is declining enrollment. In fact, 72 institutions have shut down since 2007, 86% with enrollments less than 1,000.


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Many higher education institutions are considering and implementing radical transformative strategies to address current challenges. For example, the rate of consolidation and mergers in higher education has tripled in the last four years, as state funding shrinks and enrollments plateau. A barrier to successfully navigating these complex changes is finding the right leaders – those who can operate in extreme ambiguity, who can understand and accept multiple perspectives, who can effectively manage extreme multitasking and project management, and who are fearless, yet compassionate and approachable (more on this in this blog in the weeks to come). Identifying these ‘right leaders’, however, takes time and patience as they are generally rare commodities.


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There are few organizations as complex in terms of mission, structure and stakeholders as a university. And while shared governance is clearly an operational necessity in higher education, administrative leadership is also required to produce optimum outcomes for students, faculty, staff and the broader community of an institution. Among many other duties, leaders in higher ed (and beyond) advocate for the institution and its mission, articulate a future-oriented vision internally and externally, ensure the highest quality of support, and assure the fiscal and organizational integrity of the institution. However, we must understand two features of leadership. Firstly, leadership is not just about title or rank, and it certainly is not just about “the top.” Leadership, and the need and opportunity for effective leaders, occurs at every level of an organization. This is especially true of a university, where faculty and staff leaders play an integral part in its governance.


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As we come into the Holiday season, I find this a good time to give thanks for all the blessings that my family, my friends and most of us have, in one way or another. And it’s also a good time to think about those that are less unfortunate than we are. And this includes the medically uninsured. Lest you believe that being medically under or uninsured is not as bad as it sounds, we should remember that roughly 40% of Americans owe collectors for medical bills and that U.S. adults are more likely than those in other developed countries to struggle to pay their medical bills or worse, to forgo care because of cost, as a recent piece in The Atlantic highlighted. Which means that medical bills have become the leading cause of personal bankruptcy. And being under or uninsured quite literally leads to an early death. An analysis by Families USA noted that across the nation, 26,100 people between the ages of 25 and 64 died prematurely due to a lack of health coverage in 2010, placing the lack of insurance in the top 15 causes of death per the US DHHS National Vital Statistics Report.


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The past few weeks have seen many college campuses riled by student protests. And although this erstwhile student activist welcomes this rise in student engagement, albeit narrowly focused so far, one also wonders how to also get the younger generation involved in our electoral process. As we approach another general election in 2016 we once again face the continuing discussion of whether to make it easier (usually a Democratic initiative) or more restrictive (generally a Republican strategy) to vote. However, and more importantly for the countries democratic health, voter turnout in the general elections of 2014 was the lowest since WWII. Just 36.4% of the voting-eligible population cast ballots this past November, although admittedly it was a midterm election, which generally have lower turnout than term presidential elections.


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We have often stated in this and other venues that the US as a whole, and each state in particular, needs to accelerate the growth of college-educated graduates in order to meet the demand of its industries and remain globally competitive. A rallying cry that echoes what many other advocates have been saying. And now we have a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) providing us with an update on how we, or at least the state of California, is doing... and the news isn’t good. The analysis estimates that the state will fall about 1.1 million college graduates short by 2030, a significant workforce skills gap.